Please note: I actually wrotethis months ago but as we are experiencing network issues again, I figured I’d finally post it!

I am reminded today of how much our society relies on computers; and how that may not be the best thing.

I came in to work this morning, turned on my computer, and sat down to get the day started. I first called down the hall to schedule an appointment so I wouldn’t forget. “I’d be happy to. Can you call back in a few minutes, though? The computer is down.” Ah. The scheduling program is often down, and if they didn’t finish the close yesterday, they can’t access the program until it’s finished. No problem.

Then I see the little window at the bottom of my screen. “Computer offline. You cannot access the [server] drive.” Well, crap on toast. All my files are saved on the server so I can access them anywhere, because I often fill in for others at their desk and want to still be able to do my own work as well.

Ok, fine. I know IT has been working very hard on this issue, staying late all week, and I really feel for them and appreciate what they do. I’ll go online, check my email and stuff, and hope that the server’s back up by the time I get done. Oh yeah, the entire network is down (thus no access to the scheduling software, or the server) so I can’t go online. And I can’t have my co-worker, who for some reason is having no problem accessing the server or the email server, send me a file or two to work on because I cannot access the email server either. So I am currently staring at a lump of non-biodegradable plastic and wires that is glaring back at me, laughing at my frustration because I can’t get any work done. No, really, I’m wracking my brain to find something to do that doesn’t require a computer. Yeah, nada.

So I can access Word. I can type a rant to post sometime later, probably when I get home to my computer that only gives me trouble occasionally. At least at home, my IT staff is more receptive to my needs and can address issues immediately, usually because they are preventing him from going online as well. Then again, I believe he said he was working late today…

I think I should have stayed in bed this morning.

Data entry is a devious little monster. You sit there for hours at a time, your mind slowly melting into mush at the repetitive “point, click, point, click, type….point, click…..”.

Hey, maybe the aliens from Hulu are on the wrong track. They should make people input random letters and numbers while pointing and clicking in a million different places if they really want people’s brains to rot. They could make it a password set up or something, and make us change our passwords every 30 days so we have to do it all again. Wait, it gets better! They can give us actual data from some company and have us do the data entry for the company that’s paying them for the service, rotting our brain and getting paid in human money at the same time!! Mwahahahah.

So the deceptive part of data entry: here you are typing (point, click) away and slowly losing focus on the world around you. In defense, your brain tries to kick in to another subject, like blogging and all that, and all of a sudden you are making mistakes and your fingers (point, click) don’t want to input what you are telling them to! It’s an evil, mutant mess! And boring as hell!! I do not envy those people who do this for a living.

Media quote for the day: “They’re here!”-The Poltergeist